c. 1999 Religion News Service
Hodel quits as Christian Coalition president
(RNS) Former Reagan administration official Donald P. Hodel has quietly resigned as president of the Christian Coalition, a post he had held since mid-1997.
Hodel, 63, joined the powerful conservative lobbying group when it was reorganized after the departure of former executive director Ralph Reed. Hodel assumed the title that had been held by religious broadcaster and coalition founder Pat Robertson. Robertson remains a senior adviser to the group.
Coalition spokeswoman Molly Clatworthy said Tuesday (Feb. 9) that Hodel _ who served without pay _ ended his tenure with the group Jan. 29, but made no public announcement.
She said Hodel was returning to the retirement he had already begun when he agreed to join the coalition. The Associated Press reported that Hodel may return to being an energy and natural resources consultant.
Hodel, a self-identified evangelical Christian, lived in Colorado and served on corporate boards and worked in energy and natural resources management prior to taking the coalition post. Under President Reagan, he served as interior and energy secretaries.
The coalition is not expected to replace Hodel.
Hodel came to the coalition along with former Rep. Randy Tate, R-Wash., who assumed Reed’s title of executive director. At the time of their appointment, Robertson said the two would split the high-profile public relations role Reed had performed alone.
But Hodel soon faded to the background as Tate became the coalition’s new public face. Tate remains with the organization.
When Reed left, the coalition faced an uncertain future. However, under Hodel and Tate the organization has maintained itself as a leading voice of Christian conservatives _ despite ongoing legal and financial problems.
John Green, a University of Akron political scientist who has closely tracked the religious right, said Hodel’s departure should not impact the coalition’s immediate future.”Under Hodel and Tate, the Christian Coalition abandoned a number of Reed initiatives to broaden the coalition’s appeal. The Christian Coalition returned to its core constituency, and it looks like that’s where it will stay,”Green said.
American church leaders protest Israeli housing policy in Jerusalem
(RNS) More than two-dozen American church leaders have protested what they say is Israel’s policy of unduly confiscating the Jerusalem residency cards of Palestinians, which legally ends their right to live in the city.
The protest came in the form of a letter to Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Zalman Shoval. The letter, released Monday (Feb. 8), was written in support of an earlier one sent by Jerusalem’s Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Armenian Apostolic prelates to Israel’s minister of the interior. The three churches account for the majority of Jerusalem’s Christians.
Both letters charged Israel with increasingly confiscating the Jerusalem residency cards of Palestinians after they move out of the city to neighboring towns and villages in search of affordable housing, a job or schooling.
Palestinians have long maintained that Israel nullifies the residency cards to increase Jerusalem’s percentage of Jewish residents in advance of any Middle East peace talks about the city’s final status _ although neither letter referred directly to that charge. Israel maintains it is merely following its residency laws.
The American letter was signed by Archbishop Spyridon of the Greek Orthodox Church of America; Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops; and Archbishop Khajag Dikidjian, western region prelate of the Armenian Apostolic Church in America.
Twenty-four other church officials added their support in an addendum to the American letter. They included leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; the National Council of Churches; the Serbian, Syrian, Malankara Syrian and Antiochian Orthodox churches; the Orthodox Church in America; the Episcopal Church; the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ); Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); Moravian Church; Christian Methodist Episcopal Church; National Baptist Convention U.S.A.; American Baptist Churches, USA; various Quakers groups; Church of the Brethren; Unitarian Universalist Association; Reformed Church in America and United Church of Christ.
National Religious Broadcasters to build $1.5 million facility
(RNS) The National Religious Broadcasters plans to build a $1.5 million permanent headquarters facility in Manassas, Va.
The decision was made by a unanimous vote of NRB membership on Jan. 30 during their annual convention in Nashville, Tenn.
NRB currently is headquartered in rental office space in Manassas, but has plans to build on a site that will include office space, studios and a religious broadcasting hall of fame, the organization said. The office space is scheduled to be completed in 2000.
Major contributors to the building fund include the Christian Broadcasting Network in Virginia Beach, Va.; Cornerstone TeleVision in Wall, Pa.; and Total Living Network in Chicago.
The convention, which concluded Feb. 2, had a record attendance of more than 5,000 people, topping the previous year’s total by about 1,000.
Paul Nelson, president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, was honored with the Chairman’s Award by NRB chairman David Clark, president of FamilyNet. The council, which represents 970 members who receive more than $6 billion each year, was involved in helping evangelical groups and others recover from the financial scandal of the Foundation for New Era Philanthropy, a Pennsylvania charity whose grant programs were found to be an investment scam.”I am happy to report that now, three-and-a-half years after the New Era fraud, more than 88 percent of the funds have been retrieved without litigation,”Nelson said at the meeting.
The NRB represents more than 1,100 evangelical Christian radio and television stations, program producers, multimedia developers and other related groups across the globe.
California man executed despite clemency plea from pope
(RNS) A Thai immigrant convicted of killing two men in Garden Grove, Calif., in a 1981 robbery attempt has become the latest person to be executed in the United States despite an appeal for clemency from Pope John Paul II.
Jaturun Siripongs, 43, was executed early Tuesday (Feb. 9) at California’s San Quentin prison. His death came hours after John Paul urged California Gov. Gray Davis to spare Siripongs’ life.
Siripongs once trained briefly to be a Buddhist monk in Thailand.
While visiting St. Louis in January, the pope successfully interceded on behalf of another convicted killer scheduled to be executed by appealing directly to Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan. Since then, John Paul has unsuccessfully sought to save the life of an Oklahoma man sentenced to death for murder, and now Siripongs.
The Roman Catholic Church teaches opposition to capital punishment out of respect for human life, even as most American Catholics say they support the death penalty.
Siripongs was described as having been a model prisoner, which led former San Quentin warden Daniel Vasquez to also recommend clemency for Siripongs as an example to other prisoners.
The Thai government _ which executes its own prisoners by machine gun fire _ had also asked that Siripongs not be executed.
Second annual Jewish Web Week begins Feb. 21
(RNS) Some 613 Jewish-oriented Web sites _ paralleling the number of religious commandments found in the Hebrew Bible _ are scheduled to participate in the second annual Jewish Web Week, which will run from Feb. 21-26.
Last year, the participating Web sites recorded more than 200,000″hits”_ meaning the number of times the sites were accessed.
The sites will cover the gamut of Jewish interests, including kosher vegetarian recipes, political activism, options for religious study and information on Jewish life-cycle rituals.
Jewish Web Week is designed particularly for Jews otherwise not connected to Judaism or the Jewish community.”The Web has made Judaism accessible and friendly for many Jews who might otherwise shy away from active involvement in their tradition,”said event co-organizer Yosef Abramowitz, a Boston-based Jewish activist and writer.
Quote of the day: Job Ebenezer of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(RNS)”If we look at the church’s collective potential, even if only 50 percent of mid-size congregations in urban and suburban (areas) take some basic, low-cost measures, we can save 20 percent of the energy we are currently using.” _ Job Ebenezer, director of environmental stewardship and hunger education for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, commenting on a new project by the National Council of Churches to help churches become more energy efficient.
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